choclate waffles
by Tommy.k.oneshot
Summary: tony and steve are happily married and have two kids, peter and rose. but when steve discovers rose has an eating disorder, he sees her looking at her bony figure in the mirror, he and tony don't know how to help her. but they'll be damned if they dont try


Steve knocked on the bathroom door after putting peter to bed; he could hear what sounded like someone being sick. "Honey, are you ok?"

"I'm fine pop, I think…. I think the noodles I had at the mall just don't agree with me."

"Can I do anything to help? Do you want some gravol? Water?"

"No pop. I'll be ok."

"Ok sweetie. Your dad and I are in the living room if you need anything ok?"

"Ok pop."

Steve walked to the living room and sat down next to Tony, snuggling up to him. Tony wrapped his arm around his husband. "She ok?"

"Yeah, food poisoning I think."

"Let me guess, the noodle place at the mall food court? She needs to stop eating there. It made her sick last time."

"It did? Maybe she has a food allergy we don't know about…."

"We had her tested for food allergies when she was like five." Tony shrugged. " This is the third time in two months this has happened"

"I'm calling the restaurant. They need to look into this. Its probably not just her."

"Alright, but they probably aren't open right now. You want me to get Jarvis to email them?"

"Alright, sure. What is that place called again."?

"I'm not sure. There is more than one noodle place there. I'll go ask her, I heard her go into her room."

"Ok baby," Steve kissed him on the cheek. "Why don't you take her a glass of water?"

"Sure." Tony stood and went to get water from the kitchen before heading over to their daughter's room. He knocked on the door softly. " Rose? Baby, you ok?"

"I'm fine dad."

"Can I come in?"

"I guess." Tony opened the door slowly and went to sit on the edge of the bed, placing the water on her nightstand. Rose was wrapped up in her blankets with just her head sticking out. "How you feeling?"

"I'll live," she gave a weak smile.

He ran his fingers through her blond hair. "What's the name of that noodle place? This is the third time it's made you sick. I want to write them a letter. Also, stop eating there. It keeps making you sick."

"Dad, no don't. It's fine, really. I'll just stop eating there. You don't need to send them a letter." She chewed on her lip nervously.

"You probably aren't the only person who's gotten sick. They need to have the health department over there."

"Dad. No."

"Why not?"

"Because…." She picked at the edge of her comforter that was by her chin. " I think… I think it's not a heath code thing. Raven had the same thing, and she was fine. I think it just doesn't agree with me."

"Then why do you keep eating it?"

"Because I like it." She rolled her eyes. She looked like Steve, but her mannerisms were very similar to Tony's own. Both Rose and Peter were products of genetic engineering. Tony had spent countless months in his lab working but he had eventually found a way to turn a sperm cell into an ova. From there they had hired a surrogate, as there was still need of a uterus. He couldn't fabricate one of those. It had taken a few tries for the pregnancy to stick. And Steve had almost given up hope, but at the last moment they had had to switch surrogates, and it took. They had had Rose first, she was now 17, and after lots of discussion, they had had Peter, who was now 8.

" No offence kiddo, but that's kind of dumb. If you know it makes you sick. Don't eat it."

"Ah yes, this coming from the man who tried to take the lasagna out of the oven without an oven mitt last week." She smirked

Tony laughed, "In my defense, your brother distracted me."

"It was still dumb."

"Fair point." He kissed her forehead. " You feel better ok? Get some sleep, you have school tomorrow. But if you aren't feeling up to it, you can stay home." He stood up and walked to the door.

"Thanks dad, but I should be fine. See you tomorrow, and can you get the light on your way out?"

He turned the light off, "night." He closed the door and went to check on Peter quickly before joining Steve on the couch again.

"So, what's the name of the place?"

"Its… shit. No idea."

"Brilliant detective work, Sherlock."

Tony smacked his arm lightly. " Hardy har. Either way, she doesn't think it's a health code violation, her friend had the same thing and was fine."

"Well, she just needs to stop eating there."

"That's what I said. But then she said I shouldn't be talking about intelligent choices, and brought up the lasagna incident."

Steve started laughing. "I'd forgotten about that. How's your hand?"

" I've got a bit of scaring on my palm, but its fine. See?" he held up his hand.

"Good." Steve kissed his palm. "Why don't we watch some TV then go to bed ourselves?"

"Sure." Tony pulled his legs up onto the couch and curled into Steve's chest, draping a blanket over them.

"Rose, time for breakfast," Tony poked his head inside her room only to find her bed empty.

"I'm already up dad!" came the response from the bathroom.

"Ok. Your pops has breakfast on the table for you and your brother when you're done in there." Tony walked into the kitchen and gave Steve a kiss.

"Daaaaaaad!" Peter overdramatically smacked his head on the kitchen counter.

"Oh calm down, don't be such a wimp. All I did was kiss him. Eat your breakfast." Peter sat up, rolling his eyes. Steve blushed, putting a plate of homemade chocolate waffles in front of Pete, who automatically broke into a huge grin.

"Thanks pop!" he began to eat with gusto.

Steve laughed, "You're welcome, sport." Just then Rose rushed through the kitchen.

"Seeyoulaterby."

"Aren't you going to eat?" Steve asked.

"Can't I'm late," she flashed them a smile, "bye." And with that she was gone.

Steve checked his watch. "Her school doesn't start for 30 minutes and it's a 10 minute walk…."

"Maybe she's meeting someone?"

"Maybe it's a boy!" Peter wagged his eyebrows.

"Maybe…" a note of concern entered Steve's voice. "But I haven't seen her eat breakfast in like three weeks."

"We'll get her up earlier Monday." Tony shrugged.

"Sure…"

"Steve, I'm sure its nothing."

"Can I have her waffle?" Peter interjected.

"Sure squirt." Tony passed him the waffle and Pete powered it back.

Tony hung up his phone. "She says she's eating dinner with Raven at the coffee shop next to the library, big project."

"Would it have killed her to have called earlier before I made enough food for her," Steve grumbled. "Whatever, pasta is good cold. She can have it for lunch tomorrow."

"She forgot her lunch again today."

"That kid." Steve was facing away from Tony, but the eye roll was audible.

"She has other things she's thinking about, I was the same way."

"When you were 17, you were working nonstop and nobody bothered to check on you. We make her lunch and put it on the counter every day."

"That was not my point, all I was saying is teenagers get preoccupied."

"I know… it's just… I want them to know there's enough food, and I don't want them to have… not like…"

Tony hugged Steve from behind. "Baby, I know it was hard for you growing up. There wasn't a lot of food. I'm sorry. I know you are just worried about her, she's fine."

"You're right, I'm probably just overreacting." He turned around, giving Tony a kiss, running his hands over the shorter man's back. Tony opened his mouth, deepening the kiss and tugging on the front of Steve's shirt.

"Again?!"

Tony broke away from the kiss with a chuckle, looking over at Peter who was standing by the doorway. "You know, you should really be used to this by now, it happens all the time."

Peter looked like he'd just smelled rotting tuna. "Can we pleeeeeease just have dinner?"

"Sure, sport." Steve gave Tony another quick kiss on the cheek before letting go of him. "Go sit down you two, I'll bring everything in."

Peter ran off to the table and plopped into his chair, followed closely by Tony. "So who's day do you think he'll ask about first, Pete?"

"Hmmm yours, cause of your hands." He pointed; Tony's left hand had a bandage across the back.

"Alright, if he asks about mine first, what do you want?"

"Ice cream."

"Alright. And if he asks about yours first, you have to scrape the plates after dinner."

"Deal." Pete stuck out his hand and Tony shook it. They made a similar bet every night.

"What are you two doing?" Steve put three plates down.

"Nothing," they said in unison.

"Right, okay then," Steve sat. "So how was your day Tony?"

Peter jumped out of his chair. "Boom!"

"What?"

"He gets ice cream," Tony laughed.

"Its Saturday, let her sleep, Steve."

"Its 12:30 on Saturday, I think she has slept long enough. I'm going to wake her up and give her something to eat. She can't waste her entire day in bed."

"Yeah, she said she'd come to the pool with me." Peter interjected.

"Alright, go get her up." Tony threw his hands in the air in defeat. And with that Steve got up off the couch were the three of them were watching teenage mutant ninja turtles (Tony had claimed peter had put it on, but he wasn't sure is he believed him), and went to wake Rose.

He opened her door slowly, "Rose, time to get up…"

The teenager was standing in front of the mirror in her underwear, poking at herself and crying, when she heard Steve's voice, she jumped, grabbing a bathrobe to cover her. "Pop, go away!"

He walked into the room slowly as she scrambled to pull the robe on. "Honey, what were you doing?"

"Nothing," she sniffed and tried to inconspicuously wipe her cheeks. "Nothing just go away."

He knit his brows together and sat on the foot of her bed. "That didn't look like nothing. You're upset, why?"

"You wouldn't get it, just leave me alone." She turned away from him.

Steve got off the bed and pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair. "Is this why you haven't been eating?"

At that she started to ball, pounding on his chest with a closed fist. "I can't, I can't. I can't eat. Fa-at girls don't get to eat!"

He held her closer. "Baby, baby no. You aren't fat. And even if you were, what would be wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with being full figured."

"I'm ugly!" she tried to push him away, and he loosened his grip, leaning back to perch on her vanity so he could look her in the eye, holding her hands gently.

"You are not ugly. You are beautiful. And I know you don't want to believe me, because I'm your father and you think it's my job to say it. And maybe it is, but that doesn't make it any less true. You are beautiful. But I'm worried about you. You need to eat. This isn't healthy."

"Jee, thanks pop, I'm all better now," she snapped, pulling her hands away.

He stayed calm. "I want you to tell me where you actually were last night."

"I was at the library! With Raven!"

"But you didn't go get dinner, did you?"

"No," she sniffed.

"And you forgot your lunch on purpose, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

"From now on, you will eat breakfast with us, then I will drive you to school, alright?"

"I'll just throw it up when I get there," she mumbled.

"And, either your dad or I will pick you up after school, and you'll eat dinner with us in the evening."

"Pop, that's not fair!"

"I want to make sure you're eating."

"You don't need to put me under house arrest!"

"Then prove it. If you keep down two weeks of dinners, I'll let you go back to hanging out with your friends after school, and just make you be home for dinner."

"Fuck you," she spat. " I knew you wouldn't get it. Just leave me alone."

"Oh look, and there is your reason for being grounded to tell your friends. Now get dressed and come out of your room. I'm going to give you ten minutes to collect yourself, and then I want to see you at the island in the kitchen, where you will eat some food. Then you are taking your brother swimming like you promised." With that he got up and left, calmly walking back into the living room. "Tony, I need to talk to you."

Tony could tell by Steve's tone of voice it was serious. " Right coming." He got up off the couch and followed Steve out of the room. "What's wrong?"

"Rose isn't eating on purpose. And she's throwing up what she does eat."

"Oh shit…" he ran his fingers through his hair, "so what are we going to do?"

"I told her she is eating breakfast with us every day and that I'll drive her to school. And then one of us will pick her up after school and that she will be eating dinner with us every night. And that if she keeps down two weeks of dinners, she can go back to hanging out with her friends after school, but that she will still be required to eat dinner with us every night. Also she told me to F off. So she is officially grounded for those two weeks."

"I'm not questioning you grounding her. But I don't think forcing her to eat is going to help that much."

"Why not?" he crossed his arms over his chest.

"It might make her healthier physically. But she'll put on weight. And I'm guessing that's what she is having issues with."

"Yeah, she is."

"So her putting on weight may make her dislike how she looks even more. And then she'll just find other unhealthy ways to try and keep it off. As much as she needs to eat, she also needs to feel in control."

"Oh… so what do you suggest?"

"I think she does need to eat. But I think we can start off with smaller portions of really healthy food. Maybe you could take her to the gym."

"Alright… if you think so."

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to do, but we need to do our bests." Just then Rose walked into the kitchen, looking at the floor. She shuffled over to the bar stool and sat without looking at either of them. "Hi honey."

"Hi dad," she mumbled.

"So, your pop told me what's going on. And we had a discussion about it."

"Whatever."

"Rose, we aren't mad at you for not eating. I am angry because you swore at me. That's all." She pulled on the sleeves of her sweater but didn't respond.

"So you are grounded for two weeks, but for swearing at him. Not because you aren't eating. We are just worried about you. We are going to make sure you eat, but you can start out with small portions, and real healthy stuff. Lots of vegetables and what not. All right? And you can start going to the gym if you want."

"Alright. Do I have to eat now though?"

"Yes, but you don't have to eat a lot," Steve's voice was soft. "What do you want? Smoothie? Toast?"

"Can I just have an apple?"

Tony washed one and passed it to her. "There you are. Are you alright to take your brother swimming?"

She cut a small piece off with a knife. "Yeah I guess so." She shrugged and ate it slowly.

"Honey, we are going to do our best to help you ok? But we don't know what we are doing."

"You don't need to help me dad, I'm fine."

"No you aren't, but we are going to help you through this, as a family."


End file.
